Various prior art devices have been developed for mailboxes to prevent them from being damaged by debris, e.g., that would normally strike the mailbox, when trucks, for example are plowing snow near them.
Installation of a roadside post and mailbox requires that the user follow the guidelines set by the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Transportation tasked with verifying that the roads are safe for drivers. Therefore there are safety requirements for the installations of mailboxes and what makes it critical that if a driver hits the mailbox and/or a mailbox protection system, the risk of injury to the driver and/or passengers is minimized. There are three key factors outlined in the Department of Transportation guidelines. The first factor: A mailbox, for example, can fly off a post(s) when struck by a vehicle and go through the windshield injuring the driver and/or passengers in the vehicle that hit the post. The second factor: A mailbox post that is too rigid can create significant vehicle damage and driver and/or passenger injury because it is “unforgiving and/or inflexible”. The third factor: When multiple mailboxes are mounted on a single horizontal beam, which is configured to be mounted to one or more posts. The horizontal beam, if detached from the mailbox posts in a collision, can act as a dangerous projectile through the windshield of the vehicle. All three factors or a combination thereof can result in serious injuries to the vehicle, driver, passengers, etc.
In addition, the moment of force is a measure of its tendency to cause a body to rotate about a specific point or axis and is well known by one of skill in the art. When a mailbox is struck by snow or a vehicle, for example this can exert a large moment of force on the mailbox post causing the mailbox post to break at or near its base. The moment is calculated as a force (F) times the length of a lever arm (r) and is well known by one of skill in the art. The larger the lever arm (r) for the same force applied the larger the moment of force.
A patent disclosing a mailbox guard is U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,847 issued to Pagel. This mailbox guard teaches a breakaway pin so if the mailbox is struck by a vehicle the breakaway pin releases and/or breaks and releases the mailbox from the post bracket and the post away from the vehicle (See e.g., Column 5, Lines 58-68). This invention is narrowly protected to cover a “breakaway pin” to protect the device by breaking away when the mailbox is stuck by snow, debris, etc. while not injuring the passengers in the vehicle, for example. The mailbox can be easily damaged by falling on the ground; and the mailbox and horizontal beam can be easily knocked off the post.
Another patent disclosing one such mailbox guard is U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,622, assigned to Waddell. This mailbox guard teaches a breakaway form of a curbside “imitation brick” mailbox that is formed from a block of Styrofoam, coated with successive layers of a mixture of stucco and lightweight aggregate filler, into a cutout of which a standard rural delivery mailbox fixture is placed. The Styrofoam block and mailbox can be easily damaged by snow and/or debris, for example. The damage can cause an unsightly structure, for example, that a town or city, for example might issue a citation or replacement order to the mailbox owner.
Yet another patent disclosing a mailbox guard system is U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,283, issued to Gould. This mailbox guard system also adds a guard rail that upon impact allows the mailbox(s) to rotate. However, snow and/or debris, for example can still damage the mailbox(s), the mailbox post(s) and the said invention suffers from numerous other deficiencies.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a safe, effective and moment reducing snow and debris deflection assembly which can be configured as a newspaper holder which overcomes the drawbacks and problems mentioned above.